Paradise Lost

When I first moved to St. Louis, many years ago, I remember seeing a large Peabody Coal sign near the Mississippi River downtown, and immediately I thought of the John Prine song that lamented the effect of coal mining on the environment. Here's John Denver's cover of that song.

"Paradise"
by John Prine, 1971

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born.
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County--
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking--
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill,
Where the air smelled like snakes, and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County--
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking--
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel,
And they tortured the timber, and stripped all the land.
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken,
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County--
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking--
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River,
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam.
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin',
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County--
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay?
Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking--
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

Soil as a living thing

Soil is a living thing, filled with living things. It is also HOME to billions of living things below as well as above.

Here is a fascinating animation from the California Academy of Sciences:

And here is a view of soil under a microscope:

How does the fact that we view soil as inanimate influence the ways that we care-- or don't care-- for it?

When I see that the soil is filled with life, I am struck with the intricacy of creation. I am reminded of the web of life that works in incredibly complex interconnected rings in order to support our own lives that we take for granted, as well.

"Pollen with an attitude" and the weather

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Harry Jackson, Jr, on February 27, 2017, we learned that the freakishly mild winter weather we have experiences is creating non-stop allergies in St. Louis:

"Not only will pollen allergies be around longer this year, research has found some tree pollen that is getting better at making people miserable.

Local allergists say the warm winter appears to be creating a prolonged tree allergy season. People with symptoms have been showing up in doctors’ offices since mid-January, or even sooner. In many cases, because it’s winter, people thought they had colds but were suffering early symptoms caused by breathing tree pollen.

Those who suffer from pollen allergies know this means a longer season of misery, medicine, itching, coughing, sneezing and congestion."

Read the whole thing here.

The dangers of being wildlife rangers in Kenya

From Reporter Jeremy Hance of the Guardian (UK), a report of increased violence against wildlife rangers in Kenya who are trying to protect endangered species from poachers:

" Five wildlife rangers and three other men working in wildlife protection have lost their lives in four separate countries in the past month, highlighting the numerous hazards rangers and their colleagues face in protecting the world’s wild lands and species. 

“It’s a tough week when we lose eight of our ranger family; some to poachers’ bullets and some to the other dangers that come with the territory,” said Sean Willmore, founder and director of the Thin Green Line Foundation, which supports widows and children of rangers killed in the line of duty.

“We are becoming accustomed to this sad reality. But we need the world community’s support to help provide training and equipment to prevent deaths and to support families left behind.”

 Another day, another dead wildlife ranger. Where is the outrage?

Sean Willmore 

Read more

On 17 February, a young ranger with the Kenyan Wildlife Service was shot dead by elephant poachers in Tsavo national park.

The ranger and a colleague were out on a de-snaring patrol when they came upon the tracks of known elephant poachers. The poacher ambushed the pair, killing one – officials have not yet released his name.

The other ranger pursued the poachers and reportedly killed one of them.

These particular poachers have become well known in Tsavo, which has one of the largest populations of savannah elephants in the world. A week earlier, the same group had shot and wounded an elephant, but abandoned it when they realised community scouts were on their tail. The elephant eventually perished from its wounds. Park rangers removed the animal’s ivory and sent it to Nairobi to keep it out of the black market.

'What can I do to help elephants?'

Read more

The slain ranger was in his twenties and leaves behind a young wife. He had only recently graduated from the Kenya Wildlife Service Field Training school in Manyani.

“The threats [to rangers] are escalating and with that there is a corresponding need for increased support, which in many cases does not materialise.” said Chris Galliers, the chair of the Game Rangers Association of Africa and the International Ranger Federation African representative.

Read the whole thing here.

Environmental Activists Targeted for Their Activism

From November 30, 2015... 

From Telesur:

"At least 640 land and environmental defenders have been killed for their activism in the past six years since the 2009 world climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Global Witness reported Monday as the COP21 climate summit kicked off in Paris.

Some of these victims were killed during protests at the hands of security forces, while others were explicitly targeted and shot dead by hitmen.

In light of the troubling statistic, Global Witness called on world leaders to take decisive action to protect those on the front lines struggling against resource extraction and other industries wreaking havoc on the environment, who are among some of the most vulnerable in the face of climate change.

“As delegates in Paris discuss solutions to our climate crisis, far from the corridors of power ordinary people defending their rights to a healthy environment are being killed in record numbers,” said Global Witness campaigner Billy Kyte. “If governments are serious about stopping climate change, the very least they can do is to protect the people who are personally taking a stand.”

For example, Indonesian activist Indra Pelani was forcibly disappeared by security forces and found dead in a swamp earlier this year after vocally opposing land and resource grabs that displaced small farmers in the region. In Latin America, Guatemalan activist Rigoberto Lima Choc was shot dead after exposing massive contamination in the Pasion Rio and launching a fight against the palm oil production company held responsible for the environmental catastrophe.

But these are just two cases of hundreds killed for their environmental activism in two of the countries among the top 10 most dangerous places to be an environment defender.

According to Global Witness, on average more than two land and environmental defenders were killed every week in 2014 as they fought against mining, agribusiness, and other environmentally destructive projects.

The findings from Global Witness echo a recent report by the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Humans Rights Defenders, which found that women defending land, territory, and natural resources in Mexico and Central America were most targeted with attacks between 2012 and 2014 out of all women rights defenders in the region.....


Read the whole thing here.

This news is over a year old. How many more have been added to the list of murdered activists since the time of the writing of this report?

Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell's brilliant reminder that, with nature as well as with our beloveds, we don't know what we've got till it's gone.....

Yes, Joni Mitchell. Although Counting Crows also covered this in the 1990s, and Janet Jackson sampled it....

Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell (1970)

They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go,
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

Hey, farmer, farmer,
Put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til its gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

Late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

I said
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

Pastoral Playlist: Classical Music with Nature Themes

A Pastoral Playlist

1. Antonio Vivaldi, "the Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter"
2. Ludwig von Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral"
3. Antonin Dvorak, Symphony No. 9, "From the New World"
4. Alexander Borodin, "In the Steppes of Central Asia"
5. Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring
6. Ralph Vaughan Williams, "The Lark Ascending"

The Trump Administration 's environmental rollbacks

On January 20, in the first official minutes of his term in office, Donald Trump announced his wholesale targeting of Obama-era regulations protecting the environment. From the LA Times:

"He said it on the campaign trail and, just moments after being sworn into office, President Trump said it again on a new platform, the White House website: 

He intends to roll back former President Obama’s signature efforts to fight climate change, reverse other environmental laws, dramatically expand fossil fuel production on public lands, revive the coal industry, establish “energy independence” from the OPEC “cartel” but also “work with our Gulf allies to develop a positive energy relationship as part of our anti-terrorism strategy.” 

Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” was the top item under the “issues” section of the wholly revamped  White House site  that appeared just after noon Eastern time...."

Read the entire thing here.

The economic inequalities of pollution and its effects

From Mark Dwortzan, at MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change:

One of the two top air pollutants in the U.S., ground-level ozone is harmful not only to your health but also to your bank balance. Long-term exposure to high concentrations of ozone can lead to respiratory and lung disease such as asthma, conditions that drive up medical expenses and sometimes result in lost income. Ozone exacts a particularly heavy toll on people living in economically disadvantaged areas, where industrial and power plants tend to cluster. While policies have been implemented to reduce ozone emissions across the country, they have not yet addressed built-in inequities in the U.S. economy, leaving low-income Americans at greatest risk for health and economic damages.

Now a study by researchers at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change provides the first breakdown of ozone exposure, health, and economic impacts by household income across the U.S. The study, which appears in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, uses a modified version of the MIT Joint Program’s U.S. Regional Energy Policy (USREP) model to simulate the health and economic impacts of ozone exposure and ozone-reduction policy on nine U.S. income groups. Comparing a set of policies under consideration in 2014 with a business-as-usual scenario, the researchers found the policies to be most effective in reducing mortality risks among lowest-income (less than $10,000 per year) households, which netted twice the relative economic gains as their highest-income (more than $150,000 per year) counterparts.  

“I hope our findings remind decision-makers to look at the distributive effects of environmental policy and how that relates to economic disparity,” says the study’s lead author, Rebecca Saari PhD '15, a former Joint Program research assistant and engineering systems PhD student who is now an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada. “If you ignore those effects, you underestimate the importance of ozone reduction for low-income households and overestimate it for high-income households. Now that we have better tools, we can actually model the differences among income groups and quantify the impacts.”

To obtain their results, the researchers combined a regional chemical transport model (Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions, or CAMx), health impacts model (Benefits Mapping and Analysis System, or BenMAP), and model of the continental U.S. energy and economic system (USREP) into a single computational platform. They then enhanced that platform to simulate ozone concentrations and their health and economic impacts across nine household income categories. Using 2005 U.S. ozone concentration data as a base year, they compared results from two simulations — one representing a baseline scenario in which no new ozone-reduction policy was applied, the other implementing a U.S. EPA-evaluated suite of policies once planned for the year 2014.  

The study determined that ozone exposure — and hence mortality incidence rates — declined with increasing income, with the proposed 2014 policies reducing these rates by 12-13 percent. People earning the lowest incomes were better off economically by 0.2 percent, twice as much as those in the highest income group — and were twice as economically vulnerable to delays in policy implementation.  

The model could enable today’s decision-makers to evaluate any new ozone reduction policy proposal in terms of its potential impacts on Americans in all income groups, thereby gauging whether or not it will reduce or exacerbate existing economic inequality.   

“Integrating air pollution modeling with economic analysis in this way provides a new type of information on proposed policies and their implications for environmental justice,” says study co-author Noelle Selin, associate professor in the MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “This type of approach can be used to help policymakers better identify policies that will mitigate environmental inequalities.”

The research was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the MIT Leading Technology and Policy Initiative; the MIT Energy Initiative Total Energy Fellowship; the MIT Martin Family Society Fellowship; and the National Park Service.

Links for more information:

Original article from MIT News: http://news.mit.edu/2017/modeling-unequal-benefits-us-environmental-policy-0215

Rebecca Saari, Tammy M. Thompson, Noelle E. Selin, "Human Health and the Economic Impacts of Ozone Reductions by Income Group": http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.6b04708

The Both- "Hummingbird"

In the woods we lit a fire
And we watched a wary deer walk by
The trees were restless,
moving underbrush
And clouds were banking in the sky

But I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're marching on Monsanto
But the same monolithic structures rise

In the garden we sat writing
To the rush of highway noise beside
Lonesome bees ignored the sirens
While remembering their dancing guide

But I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're marching on the Capitol
With wings at their back
and fear in their eyes

There's sage and glove and distant waters
But there's no map home
for Memory's daughters
Do the darting thoughts of gods have
dreams like ours?

On the tarmac rows of pirouetting
Jets wait gravely in their lanes
While from our windows, getting higher
We see hybrids wandering the plains

And I got a message from the hummingbird
He gave me a warning in disguise
He told me they're barking at their shadows
While the same monolithic structures rise

I got a message from the hummingbird

-- Aimee Mann and Ted Leo

Will We Miss Our Last Chance?

An interview with the world's leading climate scientist, James Hansen, from Issue 1278/1279 of Rolling Stone magazine (published online December 22, 2016):

"In the late 1980s, James Hansen became the first scientist to offer unassailable evidence that burning fossil fuels is heating up the planet. In the decades since, as the world has warmed, the ice has melted and the wildfires have spread, he has published papers on everything from the risks of rapid sea-level rise to the role of soot in global temperature changes – all of it highlighting, methodically and verifiably, that our fossil-fuel-powered civilization is a suicide machine. And unlike some scientists, Hansen was never content to hide in his office at NASA, where he was head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York for nearly 35 years. He has testified before Congress, marched in rallies and participated in protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline and Big Coal (he went so far as to call coal trains "death trains"). When I ran into him at an anti-coal rally in Washington, D.C., in 2009, he was wearing a trench coat and a floppy boater hat. I asked him, "Are you ready to get arrested?" He looked a bit uneasy, but then smiled and said, "If that's what it takes."

The enormity of Hansen's insights, and the need to take immediate action, have never been clearer. In November, temperatures in the Arctic, where ice coverage is already at historic lows, hit 36 degrees above average – a spike that freaked out even the most jaded climate scientists. At the same time, alarming new evidence suggests the giant ice sheets of West Antarctica are growing increasingly unstable, elevating the risk of rapid sea-level rise that could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world. Not to mention that in September, average measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a record 400 parts per million. And of course, at precisely this crucial moment – a moment when the leaders of the world's biggest economies had just signed a new treaty to cut carbon pollution in the coming decades – the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet elected a president who thinks climate change is a hoax cooked up by the Chinese.

Hansen, 75, retired from NASA in 2013, but he remains as active and outspoken as ever. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, he argues, sweeping changes in energy and politics are needed, including investments in new nuclear technology, a carbon tax on fossil fuels, and perhaps a new political party that is free of corporate interests.

He is also deeply involved in a lawsuit against the federal government, brought by 21 kids under the age of 21 (including Hansen's granddaughter), which argues that politicians knowingly allowed big polluters to wreck the Earth's atmosphere and imperil the future well-being of young people in America. A few weeks ago, a federal district judge in Oregon delivered an opinion that found a stable climate is indeed a fundamental right, clearing the way for the case to go to trial in 2017. Hansen, who believes that the American political system is too corrupt to deal with climate change through traditional legislation, was hopeful. "It could be as important for climate as the Civil Rights Act was for discrimination," he told me...."

Read the whole interview here.

Links for more information:
Link to the full Rolling Stone article by Jeff Goodell here.

Invitation to observe a "Green Lent"

The Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) through its chair, the Rt Revd Ellinah Wamukoya, Bishop of Swaziland, is inviting everyone to consider making a carbon fast for this Lent.

During this Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday, those making a carbon fast can begin by taking their first steps to consciously reduce their personal carbon dioxide output, their personal contribution to global warming. To assist you in doing so, ACEN has developed a Lenten Calendar. Each day of Lent, the calendar suggests something about which to think and to physically do as an individual dedicated to making their personal carbon footprint smaller. The suggestions are simple and this Lenten exercise could be the start of taking permanent steps year round to reduce one’s carbon footprint. Suggestions such as; take a day and unplug all your appliances and device chargers, cycle to work or use public transit and take reusable shopping bags on the next trip to the grocery store. 

Additionally, the ACEN, in association with Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street, has developed a booklet with Lenten meditations for the four Sundays during Lent and Palm Sunday. The meditations speak about the global water crisis. Each meditation was written by a member of ACEN. Each member who wrote is from a different geographical area of the Anglican Communion. The Revd Jeff Golliher, the Anglican Communion’s environmental representative at the United Nations, is the editor of the guide.


Links for More Information:
Original post from the Episcopal Cafe, Feb. 11, 2017, here.
Lenten Calendar with suggestions for actions for each day of Lent here.
Meditations from Trinity Wall Street on the Water of Life here.

Episcopal Church reiterates support for Standing Rock; urges March on March 10

The Episcopal Church has been advocating with the Sioux Nation against the Dakota Access Pipeline since last summer. Local Episcopalians have also provided a ministry of presence in and around Cannon Ball, North Dakota, including in Oceti Sakowin Camp. The Episcopal flag flew constantly there until the recent effort to close down the camp because of the dangerous winter weather and the fear of disastrous flooding in the spring.
Photo: John Floberg via Facebook

From the Episcopal News Service's Mary Frances Shoenberg:

"The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council during the last day of its Feb. 5-8 meeting here reaffirmed its stand with the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.
Council members said the church pledges to “continue to support the action and leadership of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation as the salt and light of the nation in its unwavering support of the sacredness of water, land, and other resources and reminding us all of the sacred calling to faithfulness.”
They praised the Episcopal Church and its ecumenical partners in the water protection actions led by the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. The Rev. John Floberg, council member and priest-in-charge of Episcopal congregations on the North Dakota side of Standing Rock, drew council’s specific praise, as did “the hundreds of Episcopal lay and clergy who responded to his call for support.”
Council also endorsed the Standing Rock Sioux Nation’s call for a March 10 march on Washington, D.C. The resolution said the march was “for the purpose of proclaiming the continuing concern for our sacred waters and lands as well as challenging our government to fulfill all relevant treaty obligations of the United States to all federally recognized tribes.” The tribe had previously started organizing the march, which Floberg had called on Episcopalians to join.
The Episcopal Church has advocated with the Sioux Nation about the Dakota Access Pipeline since summer 2016. Local Episcopalians have also provided a ministry of presence in and around Cannon Ball, North Dakota, the focal point for groups of water protectors that gathered near the proposed crossing...."

Read the entire thing here.



Links for more information:
Executive Church Council Reaffirms Stand With Standing Rock, from the Episcopal News Service
Information on the March 10 March in Washington on Facebook
The Youth Group That Started the Movement, from the NY Times
In the Bleak Midwinter, Standing Rock Episcopal Ministry is Changing, from the Episcopal News Service

US Army Corps of Engineers gives approval for DAPL

Photo by Anne Helen Petersen from Buzzfeed, posted September 9, 2016.

On February 7, after months of protests and public push-back, the US Army Corps of Engineers cut short the public comment period it had originally promised, cancelled envornmental impact studies, and granted approval for the pipeline to be buried under the Missouri River. It claims it took this action after receiving a directive from the President to expedite the approval process. A leak would endanger the water used by the Lakota people for drinking, bathing, and agriculture.

Photo by Andrew Cullen of Reuters, found on Buzzfeed.

One of the slogans used by the water protectors at Standing Rock is that "Water is Life."

Scripture bears this out. In the beginning of time, the Spirit of Breath of God moved over the waters, and life was created (Gen. 1:1-2) and the voice of God booms over the waters in Psalm 29:3. Water is mentioned 13 times in the first two accounts of creation in Genesis. Psalm 65:9 reminds God:

You visit the earth and water it,
   you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
   you provide the people with grain,
   for so you have prepared it.


Links for more information:
-Link to the article from NPR is here.
-Website to support the protesters is here.
-Article from Buzzfeed is here.
-Propaganda from supporters of the DAPL claiming that a pipeline is the "safest and most environmentally friendly way to transport crude from domestic wells to American consumers" may be found here.

Psalm 98 (CEB translation and NRSV comparison)

(NRSV translation)

Psalm 98

Praise the Judge of the World

A Psalm.

1 O sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
    have gotten him victory.
2 The Lord has made known his victory;
    he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
    to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
    the victory of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
    break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
    with the lyre and the sound of melody.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
    make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    the world and those who live in it.
8 Let the floods clap their hands;
    let the hills sing together for joy
9 at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
    to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
    and the peoples with equity.

(CEB translation)

Sing to the Lord a new song
    because he has done wonderful things!
His own strong hand and his own holy arm
    have won the victory!
2 The Lord has made his salvation widely known;
    he has revealed his righteousness
    in the eyes of all the nations.
3 God has remembered his loyal love
    and faithfulness to the house of Israel;
    every corner of the earth has seen our God’s salvation.

4 Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth!
    Be happy!
    Rejoice out loud!
    Sing your praises!
5 Sing your praises to the Lord with the lyre—
    with the lyre and the sound of music.
6 With trumpets and a horn blast,
    shout triumphantly before the Lord, the king!
7 Let the sea and everything in it roar;
    the world and all its inhabitants too.
8 Let all the rivers clap their hands;
    let the mountains rejoice out loud altogether 9 before the Lord
    because he is coming to establish justice on the earth!
He will establish justice in the world rightly;
    he will establish justice among all people fairly.

Who exactly is Ellen Davis?

Here's a wonderful Washington Post article on Ellen Davis, author of Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible." From the Religion News Service's Yonat Shimron:

With her gray hair tied neatly in a bun and her wire-rimmed glasses perched thoughtfully on her nose, Ellen Davis looks the part of a distinguished Bible scholar.

Her resume certainly reads like one — a Ph.D. from Yale University and teaching appointments at Union Theological Seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, Yale and now Duke Divinity School.

Yet despite the traditional cast, Davis is leading a quiet revolution. For the past 20 years, she has been at the vanguard of theologians studying the biblical understanding of care for the land.

Her groundbreaking book, “Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible,” is considered a classic, and she travels widely to speak at churches and conferences about the role of agriculture and the ethics of land use in the Bible.

Her work makes the case that Christian theologians have for too long focused narrowly on the spiritual component of Scripture and in the process have overlooked the Bible’s material concerns.

Speaking to some 30 church members as part of a Sunday morning Creation Care series at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in nearby Chapel Hill, she focused on Genesis 1. She read aloud from the Bible and pointed out that God blesses nonhuman creatures first.

“It is not all about us,” said Davis, 63. “God is establishing a genuine relationship with creatures of sea and sky.”

This point — that the Bible does not separate human life from nonhuman life and that God cares for all creation — is consistent throughout her writings.

Read the entire article here.

Links for more information:

RNS article, via the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/ellen-davis-unearths-an-agrarian-view-of-the-bible/2013/10/29/26b5e90e-40ca-11e3-b028-de922d7a3f47_story.html?utm_term=.80cc70557af1

RNS link: http://religionnews.com/2013/10/28/ellen-davis-unearths-agrarian-view-bible/

An excellent review of the book posted at Patheos: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slowchurch/2011/11/13/sunday-afternoon-book-review-scripture-culture-agriculture-by-ellen-davis/